JUST RELEASED!

My 4th anthology story contribution with 13 other Windtree Press authors. We were given the title of Navigate and each of us had to come up with a story that revolved around this theme.

https://books2read.com/u/4A8zdN

Metro Sails the Atlantic by Susie Slanina
The Cottage on the Hill by Diana McCollum
A Country to Cross by Terri Patrick
Dark Tide by Pamela Cowan
Changing Course by Paty Jager
Jamboree Jealousy by Kimila Kay
Navigating the Stars by Mary Vine
When I’m an Old Lady by Judith Ashley
Navigating the Chaos by Dari LaRoche
The Beckoning by Maggie Lynch
Delicate Creatures by Melissa Yuan-Innes
In the Interest of Transparency by Lisa de Nikolits
The Conscript by M. Jaimeson
The Journey by Ron Roman

What do you think of when you hear the word Navigate. Do you think of using cell phone apps to help you drive from one place to another? Or do you think of navigating life and its ups and downs? Or perhaps you think of navigating the stars.

In this collection of fourteen stories, our authors have used the theme to provide humor, compassion, wonder, scares, and questions for the reader to solve.

Inside you’ll find everything from a heartwarming children’s tale story about a little dog to genre-spanning works for adult readers including witchy-romantasy, women’s fiction, mystery, science fiction, memoir, poetry, and contemporary literature. Enjoy!

Ebook $4.99, Print $19.99

                                            

Book Signing in a Classy Trailer

Author Paty Jager's Book Sale 

I had the opportunity to sell my books in author Paty Jager's book trailer in historical Sumpter, Oregon on Memorial Day weekend. Check the link above!

Answering Author Questions

 Today I'm answering author questions at Romancing the Genre

https://romancingthegenres.blogspot.com/

Grandma Harper's Imagination is Out Today!

 

This is my anthology contribution, as you see included

above. I love the old house as my cover for Grandma Harper's Imagination.

Find at Windtree Press or on Amazon   

Imagination. It is a word that conjures up so much and can cover so many emotions. In this collection of nine unique stories and a poem, you will cross centuries, hang in suspense, chuckle and perhaps even laugh, and wonder did the character imagine that or not. Dari LaRoche starts this anthology with a poem that explores what sparks the imagination as it moves between conscious thought and the sublime, reflecting the beauty that surrounds us.

In Metro Takes a Road Trip, Susie Slanina returns to the adventures of a dog named Metro discovering new places and talents. In The Watching Game, Lisa de Nikolits crafts a story that explores invisible friends, suspense, and the power of suggestion. Diana McCollum’s story, Son-ja’s Journey, explores the story of a lost child who wanders into a Native American tribe’s camp and is raised as one of their own.

Pamela Cowan’s story, Mars, moves away from earth to outer space in her futuristic tale with a twist about a young man coming of age. Back on earth, Mary Vine provides a story of romance, suspense, and humor in Grandma Harper’s Imagination. Maggie Lynch pits fantasy against reality in Sky Painter, as a young girl develops unusual talents.

Another Life, by Paty Jager, provides a conundrum for the reader to unravel whether a battered wife and a dead husband is a tale of delirium or truth. In Project I.M.A.G.I.N.E. Anna Brentwood and Colton Long pen a cautionary tale of artificial intelligence that begins in the 1980s. Kimila Kay closes out the anthology with Rattlesnake Ravine, a suspense novella that plays with imagination versus truth and the consequences of having to choose only one side.

Release of A Place to Land (Second Edition)

 I'd like to announce the release of the second edition of A Place to Land. It's in ebook, print, and audio formats. How about that cover?

Link to Amazon

She isn't afraid of the big, bad wolf.
But he's a little concerned about her.

When Uli's impoverished family left Russia for America, she was only 10 years old. From that point on, she's been determined to make the American dream hers. When Headline Magazine offers the perfect story with which to launch her new writing career, Uli travels across Oregon to find out exactly how wolf and cowboy mix. As she finds her spirit guide in the wolf and her soul mate in the cattle rancher, a mysterious danger seems bent on finding her.
Movie-star handsome, Jackson Holt owns one of the largest ranches in eastern Oregon and, like most ranchers, is none too happy with wolves crossing over the Idaho border near his livestock. The last thing he needs is a semi-environmentalist, journalist wannabe dogging his footsteps. Sure, Uli may be bright and sexy, but her need to prove herself and help her family threaten to lead her into the kind of harm he can't protect her from−when all he wants to give her is...a place to land.

A Humorous Slant at Growing Older

 

 My goal this fall is not to fall. I did fall recently−over my dog. Why is it when you fall when you are older, your brain tells you you’re falling but it doesn't do anything about it? When I was younger, I’d at least stick a hand out to help brace myself against a fall.

Thankfully, my dog didn’t get hurt and I didn’t break anything. I suffered a black eye. Yet, I didn’t have to wear makeup as the “eye” was all anyone looked at. My husband thought he’d be blamed for it, poor guy. And a friend asked if my dog was a boxer.

At my last wellness doctor appointment (before my fall), my doctor said my weight was okay, but I need to start exercising. I must have joked about it, or said no or something, because she raised her voice at me. First time ever.

I exercised when I was younger, using various machines I could fit into my home. I wasn’t always good about getting it done, but at least I didn’t forget I’d planned to exercise on a specific day without needing a reminder. Now, I must write it down, but often at bedtime, I recall that I’d forgot to exercise. Yes, I wrote it in my calendar, but I forgot to look at my calendar. I suppose I could move my fitness machine where I could see it, but then I might fall over it.

Now that I’m older I realized I’d had it wrong about exercising. I exercised to improve my waistline, which back then was just fine. Young people are so critical of their bodies, but that is another blogpost. Anyway, now I need to exercise for a stronger body, especially stronger legs.

Yet, this morning I read a Facebook post that seemed serious at the beginning but turned out to be humorous. It stated that if you exercise you will live longer. At age 85 you will have five more months to live in a nursing home. And then, he said his father walked five miles a day and now at age 92 he can’t find him.

As I write I am stationary, which doesn’t help accrue daily steps. But then on second thought,  if I wasn’t a writer, I’d probably be stationary as well. I have deserted an office and a writing desk to sit in my very comfortable recliner as I write on my laptop. Why not be comfortable as I write?

No one is going to get me to write anywhere else, I tell you. I even have a recliner in my summer cabin. So, this fall’s strengthening program is going to be a goal I will have to work hard at. At least I can read while I sit on my incumbent exercise bike.

Hats off to all you writers who do get exercise, I admire you. I plan to be one of you soon. Uh…next week.

www.authormaryvine.com

 

Link to Secrets of Trillium Falls by Mary Vine

A courageous but naïve woman and a benevolent but cynical man reconcile to evict ghosts and restore a mansion.

 

NEW BOOK RELEASE!

 

I am proud to announce the release of the Windtree Press anthology. Ten authors contributed a variety of stories (and one poem!) with "Whispers" as the theme. I contributed "Whispers Upon a Star."

Here is the link: 2023 Whispers Anthology

Cover Blurb: A whisper is a soft barely audible sound or resemblance of a sound. Perhaps a thought in one’s head, a flutter of leaves, a feather floating to the ground, or a wish. In this collection of ten stories and a poem the theme of "Whispers" is used in different ways.

From the poem Soul Whispers, from Dari LaRoche, you can conjure up the variety of whispers in the coming stories. This is followed by the Children’s story, Whispers in a Dream, by Susie Slanina, where Metro the dog visits outer space through a dream.

The tale of Friends and Neighbors by Pamela Cowan murmurs of unlikely alliances. In Whispers of the Halycon, author Dari LaRoche’s submission is a twist on a fairytale. Author Mary Vine’s characters, in Whisper Upon a Star, hide their feelings as they try to find a killer.

Her Zayka is a tale of a close bond between a young woman and the nanny she grew up with. Author R. Hockamin has a unique twist at the end. Of Wings and Whispers is a fantasy where author Diana McCollum takes the reader on an emotional ride as a fairy with a broken wing finds love.

Suspense and romance will keep you turning the pages of author Kimila Kay’s Whispering Willows. Author Melissa Yuan-Innes story, Bread and Ashtrays, is an intriguing tale of an empath who sees whispers of a man’s life.

The characters in Whispers of the Past, by Paty Jager, are seeking a person whom they may or may not wish they’d never heard of. Ending this collection of titillating and thought-provoking stories is author Maggie Lynch’s Pax Reborn. This science fiction novella asks the question would the world be better with everyone content and equal?

Enjoy and savor each story. Every one of the stories will leave whispers of questions and coax a smile.